Kranic

I’ll “come out” here as admitting that I’ve never really learned how to beat match. (This also has to do in part with the way my brain is wired as I easily get over-whelmed by huge amount of sensory input. I can hear it, but it’s much much harder for me to pick it out than for the (standard) neuro-typical person.) Without this feature, I probably wouldn’t have gone into this hobby either. That being said, I do want to work on it as I agree with others that it’s something useful, if only to understand music even better.

Now that that’s out of the way, I really like the tennis analogy brought up by Dave. If it’s on sync it would just be bouncing around the ball and there would be no dynamics. Not only from the mentioned human error, but also from how you use the time. Just replacing the “player” and continue the “boring” tennis match is no fun; if you make the player run around the field, make it go “bullet-time”/Matrix-style, introduce more balls or suddenly throw in another player or make it change styles; that’s what keeps it interesting.

Same thing about the media being used, why should it matter if you use vinyl, CDs, USB, memory-cards or HDs?

From my experience, the digital DJs that use the sync functionality, are also the ones that prepare the track before hand, making sure that the beat grids are perfectly aligned. I don’t think a lot of the “purists” realise that. Call it “pro-active beat matching” if you will…

Then again, I think I’m partly preaching to the choir here….

Just my 2 cents.

P.S. Doesn’t the same thing apply to harmonic mixing?

The biggest issue I’ve encountered was when I had other programs doing I/O (and not just from saving the recording).

Make sure you’ve disabled/shutdown any and every program you don’t need.
Disable automatic indexing.
Make sure you’re running in the High Performance profile or disabled the Windows Power Management settings otherwise.

Laptops are usually fitted with a (slower) 5400 rpm disk, that’s the usual/main-cause for performance issues; next to Windows running out of memory and/or wanting to drop programs from RAM to disk. If this happens during a set, too much I/O might kill the access to your tunes and thereby the audio.

(If it happens, check your harddisk indicator, if it’s turned on; that might be your issue.)

Some here basically, as pointed out by the others, it sounds too much like prance/prancing. If you wanted to use it, you could balanced it out by using something silly. Possibly with something that people can relate to/poke fun of like The Lonely Desert Prancer or Pranse Hammam. Or use something that brings in something from your own language, making it into an oxymoron like a fearless coward or a leader without people. (Just some random ideas.) If I recall correctly, the French language also has a large presence in Moroccan society, why not use that.

My name was inspired by the Balkans, after wanting a Yugoslavian sounding name for a gaming profile. I thought it was random and original, until I recently learned that it also means small penis in Russian…and also a real Slavic last name, all while being Dutch :p

Some of the biggest, most widely known DJs have used their real names and the Dutch DnB/Dubstep act Noisia came up with their name after seeing a video tape upside down with VISION written on it.

In the end, to me, the name should primarily come from within you.
You summed up a few of your principles/ideas already. What I always do is go over that list and think of words that “grab” that idea. The strongest marketing is when it’s something that’s you, that embodies what you’re trying to be and say. Don’t limit yourself by only using the English language. Don’t hang yourself up on the actual name, it’s just a name. If you feel that Pranse doesn’t do you justice, then don’t use it, let it go for now, in the meanwhile ponder a bit about what you want your name to “say” and just throw some words around and go from there.

I know it’s hard, but I hope it helps.

softcore, post: 8917 wrote: Anyyyyywayyyys, probably wrong usage of words on my behalf, but I think in the end, we are on the same path! 😉

I’m not a native speaker either, I think you may have meant it more as someone in the DJ profession.
But yeah, we’re on the same page. 🙂

softcore, post: 8917 wrote: I understand what you mean “profesionalism” here, and I fully agree. In fact I have often got into “verbal fights” with guys when they dont deal with the required seriousness and dedication – profesionalism with the excuse:
“Pffff, who gives a ….Im a nobody anways”…My reply always is: “And you will continue to be, being in such a mindframe”.
😉

Spot on! Completely agree!

And it’s also one of the key factors in the mixing process, as a DJ, when something goes wrong, you need to take action (be decisive). If you don’t take it seriously, if you don’t take yourself seriously, when you mess up… Well, your point has been proven! 😉

On a side note, ultimately, it’s about the person themselves: “Who gives a …”; if you don’t care for/about yourself, why would anyone else do? But as much as I like psychology…we’re getting off-topic :p

softcore, post: 8896 wrote: As for that friend of yours I think it was a stupid thing to say regardless of what category of the above he belongs. We should always be careful of the expressions we use when describing our own personal preferences – “Personally, mate, I prefer playing only electro and tech house, as these are my favourite genres” would be more appropriate and in the end, wiser.

Hehe, indeed, very much so that last point: wiser.
Showing respect for the other party’s taste in music, while expressing one’s own taste.

Regarding the of your post, your choice of wording struck me a bit… just due to my personal interpretation/value of the word chosen. To me, professionalism is something linked to your attitude on the topic.

Say you start off in a lower league of your favourite sport, say…curling! (Wonderful sport!)
You’d be expected to have the same level of dedication (professionalism) to the game in the lower brackets as someone who would be playing top league, like say a national (Olympic) curling team.
The national team might be playing/training much more often and/or get sponsorship to support them, but they also need to show up, on time, prepared and ready for action. (What if they forgot their awesome pants!)

To me, the only real difference comes from the fact that they may or may not be supported financially/have resources at their disposal. Come to think of it, the players in a lower level might even have to work harder, because they lack a lot of the support the people in the higher/top level do have.

To bring it back to the different archetypes, I think it’s also very relevant to take this into account.
If you take out professionalism as a factor or use it as a ladder, I guess you could think more of it like this:

Working(/committed) artist
Motivation: Paying the bills, by (hopefully) doing something fun/what they love to do.
Relies on his/her work as an artist for his/her income.

Hobby artist
Motivation: Doing something fun/what he/she loves doing.
Has a(nother) primary source of income, which could be supplemented by working as an artist.

Fun-factor artist (aka Bedroom artist/DJ)
Motivation: Doing something fun/what he/she loves doing.
Has a primary source of income and does not rely on work as an artist.

I’ve used the term artist, because for this comparison it doesn’t matter whether you’re a DJ or play in a band; it doesn’t matter if you’re a “Artistic” DJ, a “Commercial” DJ or a “Purpose/Situational” DJ.

As the “Artistic” DJ speaks for itself I guess (I guess you could call Skrillex one or the collaboration between Chris Liebing and Speedy J for instance), the “Commercial” DJ playing to promote himself/herself/his/her sound/work (think Swedish House Mafia/), while the last one would fit a wedding or themed-party DJ for instance.

It could be a kid who suddenly thinks he’s the worlds greatest turntablist after receiving decks, a mixer and some old records from mummy and daddy for his birthday or maybe it’s the retired lady down the street who suddenly discovered the appeal of mixing 20s/30s-style music and now travels to elderly homes all over the country to provide for music therapy.

If you then think about professionalism… Yes, the “Working” DJ would require a high rate of professionalism, but so would the “Hobby” DJ. They both can’t afford to deliver a “sloppy product”. And if the “Bedroom” DJ ever wants to make it out of the bedroom…he/she would also have to show a high rate of professionalism! Nobody wants to listen to a badly done mix and to use the sports comparison again, those skills can only come from training and learning.
(Disclaimer: Not being judgemental, if you’re having fun doing stuff, by all means: that’s the most important thing 🙂 – I came across a DJ last night who’s made it into a sport and his trademark, best show ever! :))

If I honestly look at my own situation, I guess that according to some people I would be considered to be a bedroom DJ.
While, after doing a lot of hours of internet radio (9-hour b2b was one up there), I tend to approach my live mixes with as much professionalism as any other DJ would. (Or in my opinion, should.) What it sort of comes down to, I guess, is that just because it’s a hobby, doesn’t mean you don’t need to take it seriously. With the side note, that it is possible to have fun, while still being dedicated.

Oh dear, ahem, just my 2 essay-cents! 😉

DJ T3ch Hu5ky, post: 8540 wrote: but I’m working with a keyboard and mouse right now so please bear with me on this one.

You make it sound like a bad thing! 😉
(It’s all you need really. It’s a production, not a mix. Is it? :o)